. . . according to a study by Transportation Research. Drivers are typically willing to fork over a $3,500 premium for partial automation and about $4,900 extra for "full automation," said the report, citing a poll of almost 1,300 Americans. . . .

How successful such automakers will be at fetching those premiums remains in question, though, as older, and often wealthier consumers are less trusting of self-driving technology than are their younger counterparts. According to a study, less than a quarter of Baby Boomers trust autonomous technology, while just 41 percent of Gen X-ers are more willing to put their cars on autopilot than taking the wheel themselves. And more than 55 percent of those qualifying as millennials or younger trust self-driving technology.

This is why Nissan's approach of providing a remote driver will probably be necessary for many years, before full autonomy can be achieved.

The problem with self-driving cars could turn out to be humans

...Although autonomous cars are likely to carry passengers or cargo in limited areas during the next three to five years, experts say it will take many years before robotaxis can coexist with human-piloted vehicles on most side streets, boulevards and freeways. That's because programmers have to figure out human behavior and local traffic idiosyncrasies. And teaching a car to use that knowledge will require massive amounts of data and big computing power that is prohibitively expensive at the moment.

"Driverless cars are very rule-based, and they don't understand social graces," said Missy Cummings, director of Duke University's Humans and Autonomy Lab.

Driving customs and road conditions are dramatically different across the globe, with narrow, congested lanes in European cities, and anarchy in Beijing's giant traffic jams. In India's capital, New Delhi, luxury cars share poorly marked and congested lanes with bicycles, scooters, trucks, and even an occasional cow or elephant.

Then there is the problem of aggressive humans who make dangerous moves such as cutting cars off on freeways or turning left in front of oncoming traffic. In India, for example, even when lanes are marked, drivers swing from lane to lane without hesitation.

Already there have been isolated cases of human drivers pulling into the path of cars such as Teslas, knowing they will stop because they're equipped with automatic emergency braking.

"It's hard to program in human stupidity or someone who really tries to game the technology," says John Hanson, spokesman for Toyota's autonomous car unit.

Kathy Winter, vice president of automated driving solutions for Intel, is optimistic that the cars will be able to see and think like humans before 2030.....

CNBC wrote:"I always say that the cars are going to be out there looking, so the next time an Amber alert comes up and they're looking for a license plate, the cars should be able to find that license plate quite rapidly," said Krzanich.

The idea could bring up concerns about privacy, but Krzanich has already thought of how to minimize those worries.

"We'll have to put limitations on it," he said. "We'll have to encrypt that data and make sure I can't tell that it's John's [car] necessarily," said Krzanich.

Report below that UK drivers will get their first experience with Propilot before we do with the LEAF gen 2:

Updated Nissan X-Trail gets Propilot semi-autonomous technology

Updated SUV will be available to order from August; it’ll get Stage 1 Propilot semi-autonomous technology

...The system, which was launched on the Japan-only Serena MPV last year, still requires drivers to maintain contact with the steering wheel and be ready to retake control should they need to.

Other driver assist programmes include automatic emergency braking with pedestrian recognition, as well as rear cross-traffic alert, which gives visual and audible warnings if the driver is about to reverse into oncoming traffic...

Nissan's mass roll-out of AEB will precede Propilot on most USA models, and will be standard equipment on 2018 (gen 2) LEAF, among others:

Nissan to offer standard Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) on one million U.S. vehicles in 2018 model year

Nissan today announced that it is making Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) standard on a projected one million vehicles sold in the United States for model year 2018, including seven of the company's most popular models – Rogue/Rogue Sport, Altima, Murano, LEAF, Pathfinder, Maxima and Sentra (except manual transmission-equipped and all NISMO versions).

AEB (previously known as Forward Emergency Braking) uses radar technology to monitor a vehicle's proximity to the vehicle ahead, giving the driver audible and visual display warnings to help the driver reduce the vehicle's speed if a potential frontal collision is detected. If the driver fails to respond, the AEB system can apply the brakes, helping the driver to avoid the collision or reduce the speed of impact if it is unavoidable.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data, one-third of all police-reported crashes involve a rear-end collision (2013 study). The NHTSA also reports that systems such as AEB can help reduce injury insurance claims by as much as 35 percent (2015 report).

"The big news here is that we're making AEB standard across all grades of our best-selling models," said Michael Bunce, vice president, Product Planning, Nissan North America, Inc. "This increased AEB availability is part of our ongoing commitment to help reduce fatalities while realizing our comprehensive vision of Nissan Intelligent Mobility."

The projected 2018 AEB sales are more than double that of previous model years. It will be offered as standard equipment on 2018 Rogue and Rogue Sport, Altima, Murano, LEAF, Pathfinder, Maxima and Sentra (except manual transmission-equipped and all NISMO versions) models, as well as select Armada models...

Honda Motor Co. outlined its plans to develop autonomous cars with level 4 capability that can drive on city streets by 2025, building on its strategy to take on automotive rivals of the future.

Unveiling its mid-term Vision 2030 strategy plan on Thursday, Honda said it would boost coordination between r&d, procurement and manufacturing to tame development costs as it acknowledged it must look beyond conventional vehicles to survive in an industry that is moving rapidly into electric and self-driving cars...

The same airlines that introduced ~17' wide seats in coach, are probably anxious to get rid of the pilots, so they can open up the prime space for premium-paying concierge class passengers

Boeing studies pilotless planes as it ponders next jetliner

Boeing Co is looking ahead to a brave new world where jetliners fly without pilots and aims to test some of the technology next year, the world's biggest plane maker said in a briefing ahead of the Paris Airshow.

The idea may seem far-fetched but with self-flying drones available for less than $1,000, "the basic building blocks of the technology clearly are available," said Mike Sinnett, Boeing's vice president of product development.

Jetliners can already take off, cruise and land using their onboard flight computers and the number of pilots on a standard passenger plane has dropped to two from three over the years.

Sinnett, a pilot himself, plans to test the technology in a cockpit simulator this summer and "fly on an airplane next year some artificial intelligence that makes decisions that pilots would make", he said.

Self-flying aircraft would need to meet the safety standards of air travel, which had its safest year in 2016, according to the Aviation Safety Network. They would also need to convince regulators who don't yet know how to certify such planes.

"I have no idea how we're going to do that," Sinnett said. "But we're studying it right now and we're developing those algorithms."...

WASHINGTON - California and other states would be barred from setting their own rules governing design and testing of self-driving cars, while federal regulators would be blocked from requiring pre-market approval for autonomous vehicle technology, according to a U.S. House Republican proposal reviewed by Reuters on Thursday. . . .

The industry also opposed an Obama administration proposal last year that raised the possibility of giving regulators the power to review and approve self-driving car technology before it was put into service, similar to the vetting by Federal Aviation Administration of new technology for aircraft.

The 45-page draft package of 14 bills would designate the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as the lead agency for regulating self-driving cars, pre-empting state rules.

States could still set insurance and registration rules but could not use them as a way to regulate self-driving technologies. California has proposed changes to its self-driving car rules, but automakers said in April it has not gone far enough.

One of the bills in the proposal would allow the U.S. Transportation Department to exempt up to 100,000 vehicles per year from U.S. federal motor vehicle safety rules, which currently prevent the sale of self-driving vehicles without steering wheels, pedals and other human controls.

Another would declare crash data, other testing and validation reports from automated cars turned over to U.S. regulators to be "confidential business information."

U.S. Representative Bob Latta, who chairs a key panel overseeing automobile regulation, called the draft legislation "an important step in establishing a framework to allow innovators to safely develop and test autonomous vehicles. . . ."

IMO, if GOP legislators wish to commit political suicide, passing those bills in their current form would go a long way down that path. There's enough resistance on the part of the public to fully-autonomous vehicles as it is, without allowing companies to hide crash and test data, or use the public as guinea pigs without any prior safety review.

Guy [I have lots of experience designing/selling off-grid AE systems, some using EVs but don't own one. Local trips are by foot, bike and/or rapid transit].

The 'best' is the enemy of 'good enough'.Copper shot, not Silver bullets.